Luckily the demo, which released the same day as an overview trailer for Forgotten Land, gives fans a good idea of what they can expect from the final product. It includes the game’s first three levels, giving Kirby access to a handful of copy abilities and Mouthful Mode objects to play with across an abandoned, overgrown city. Also included are the opening cinematic, a boss battle with Gorimondo: the Strong-Armed Beast, and the chance to try some upgraded copy abilities. That boss encounter is particularly interesting, as it suggests HAL Laboratory may be expanding upon unique elemental interactions from Kirby Star Allies.
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How Kirby Star Allies Amped Up Boss Weaknesses
The original Kirby’s Dream Land on Game Boy did not feature the pink puffball’s now-iconic copy abilities; those weren’t a part of the series until Kirby’s Adventure hit the NES in 1993. Since then, developers have iterated upon the basic concept of Kirby using his opponent’s abilities to his advantage for both puzzle solving and combat. One recurring idea is Kirby mixing his copy abilities.
In Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, various powers like Burn and Rock could be mixed to land on unique copy abilities like volcano. The idea returned in a more restricted form with Kirby: Squeak Squad, in which players could mix abilities via bubbles on the bottom DS screen. For the most part it was limited to weapons gaining elemental power, such as a fire sword or ice bombs.
Kirby Star Allies, the last mainline title released on Switch in 2018, primarily stuck to the realm of physical weapons imbued with power. However, it did so by sectioning off a few key elements that could be infused into almost anything: Blizzard, Bluster, Sizzle, Splash, and Zap. Kirby’s allies could give his sword an electric coating, for example, though a number of team-up attacks went one step further like moving stones via the ESP ability. Some of Star Allies’ bosses also had hidden weakness interactions with certain key elements, such as Whispy Woods catching fire or Kracko freezing and falling to the floor.
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Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s Copy Abilities May Carry the Torch
The final part of Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s recent demo offers players three copy ability choices to use in their battle with Gorimondo: ice, bomb, and sword. Given bomb and sword both appear in earlier levels, the latter coming from a mini-boss fight against the newly redesigned Wild Edge, it’s likely many will pick ice for this demo’s climactic boss battle. Kirby’s frost breath doesn’t do a lot of damage, but Gorimondo begins to slow down and eventually freeze over as Kirby attacks the giant ape over a long period.
With only one boss battle available in the demo, it’s hard to say whether Gorimondo freezing is a unique interaction or something inherent to every large enemy struck by Kirby’s ice (a larger adaptation of how basic enemies often get encased in blocks of ice). However, given its similarities to prior interactions like Kracko freezing when his rain is hit by frosty abilities, it seems likely HAL Laboratory still has elemental weaknesses in mind.
This kind of weakness exploit has long been a staple of game design, from Pokemon’s rock-paper-scissors Type advantages to something like “Spark Mandrill Syndrome” in Mega Man X; in which the Maverick can be repeatedly stunned with well-timed Shotgun Ice attacks for an easy victory. Kirby and the Forgotten Land ’s evolved copy ability upgrades can take things one step further than Star Allies. Some enemies could exclusively be weak to electrified Chain Bombs or blistering Dragon Fire, and HAL Laboratory would be smart to leave these interactions vague enough that players can discover them organically.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land releases March 25, 2022 for Nintendo Switch.
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